Not quite ready to take a final bow

FAI Cup final: Emmet Malonetalks to midfielder Mark Rutherford, who hopes Sunday is not his last appearance for St Patrick's Athletic

As the bulk of the St Patrick's Athletic players line out for their first FAI Cup final press conference with a certain bemused curiosity Mark Rutherford has the unmistakable air of somebody who has both been here and done this all before.

Sunday's game against Derry City, in fact, could yet prove to be the English winger's eighth Carlsberg FAI Cup final, something of a bonus after a rollercoaster season for St Patrick's Athletic, he admits, but not, he hopes even now, his last.

"I remember playing my first one with Shelbourne in '93 (they beat Dundalk, thanks to a solitary Greg Costello goal) and talking to Mick Neville who was about to play in his eighth or ninth. I was thinking 'how could you? How could you get to play in that many finals?' But here I am 14 years later hoping to do the same thing."

He says "hoping" because he remains unsure as to whether he will start for the Dubliners, although he makes the point he has done so whenever he has been fit this season.

If he does start again then it could be his last game for the club although it is a little ironic that a first FAI Cup success in 45 years for the Inchicore outfit will make his own departure all the more likely.

The problem is that a win would mean qualification for Europe as well as the Setanta Cup next season which, St Patrick's manager John McDonnell hopes, should mean money being made available to strengthen the squad.

If that happens then the 34-year-old, who has previously won this competition three times with Shelbourne and once with Bohemians, could well find himself surplus to requirements.

"At the moment I'm just concentrating on getting my game on Sunday, after that we'll see. I hope that I do get the offer of another year but if I don't then I still think I have something to offer another club for another year or two.

"The main thing is Sunday, though. It's a huge game for the club and the venue should suit us. It's a big pitch with plenty of space and that should suit a team that likes to play football and use wide men like ourselves.

"To get here for me is a bonus because, even though with a club like this it's always possible, I can't say I expected to get to play in another final.

"To play would be great and to score a goal would be very nice. I've never got one in any of the previous finals."

Derry City will, he admits, be formidable opponents and like most everybody else in Inchicore, he seems happy to see them viewed as favourites. Over the years, though, he has come up against just about all of the game's best defenders and, he reckons, the better they are the better he manages to get out of himself, particularly on the big occasions.

"For me Owen Heary is the best right back in the league here but I like to think that I always do well enough against him," he says. "A lot of the others over the years have just tended to kick me but I got used to that a long time ago. If I didn't get kicked by the guy marking me I'd start to wonder if maybe I'm not doing something I should be."

Rutherford has been on the end of some particularly rough treatment. Dundalk's Richie Purdy broke his leg during his Shelbourne days but he still remembers Donal Broughas as his toughest opponent.

"He used to kick me into the stand," he laughs, "and then the strange thing was that when we both played together at Shelbourne he was such a nice guy."

It's a tag that could easily be applied to Rutherford too. While his short-term future is uncertain, Rutherford intends to move to Cork eventually with his partner, Melanie (who is from the city) and their twin daughters, Naoise and Holly.

Having completed a degree in software systems and undertaken a postgraduate course in business he should be able to look forward to a bright future outside the game.

This weekend, though, he'll be aiming to prove his worth in it one more time. Playing as if it's his last ever appearance on the domestic game's biggest stage before hoping, come Monday morning, that it doesn't end up being the end of the road after all.